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Quetcy Lozada's city council full speech about addiction in Kensington

A Philadelphia lawmaker who represents the Kensington neighborhood that is the site of the city’s largest open-air drug market unloaded on critics of her tough-on-crime approach during an impassioned speech in City Council Thursday, saying those who see her efforts as heartless are operating in bad faith. At issue was a bill authored by Councilmember Quetcy Lozada that would restrict how some medical providers and volunteer groups serve people in addiction in Kensington. The legislation requires the mobile groups operate only in areas designated by the city and creates a framework for a permitting system. After several providers testified in opposition to the legislation Thursday, Lozada delivered a lengthy speech, at times raising her voice and hitting her desk, saying: “How dare you organize and tell people lies... without reading the damn bill.” “This bill will take people off of people’s sidewalks,” she said. “I have seniors who are living with people who are unsheltered on their porches and threatened by those individuals if they call police on them. Would you allow that in your house? Would you allow that on your property? Hell no. Hell no. So why should my residents?”
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